


The Art of Staying

by neko11lover



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-12
Updated: 2012-02-12
Packaged: 2017-10-31 00:35:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/337965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neko11lover/pseuds/neko11lover
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She plays her role to the letter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Art of Staying

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [iu_fanfiction](http://iu-fanfiction.livejournal.com/)'s 40th writing challenge, with the prompt 'Uxorial'. Beta’d by the amazing [trice_bea10](http://trice-bea10.livejournal.com/)! Thank you so much, Bea! (That said, anything else wrong with this now is now my fault.) Also with references taken from Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife.
> 
> Also a longer version of a drabble I submitted for one of IU’s [drabblefests](http://possiblechances.livejournal.com/55258.html) using the prompt, The Time Traveler’s Wife (ctrl + F, Time Traveler's).

  
_I hate to be where she is not, when she is not._  
 _And yet, I am always going, and she cannot follow._

The Time Traveler’s Wife

__

 

 _Haru –_  
  
Waiting gives her a sense of self-gratification. With _The Time Traveler’s Wife_  her bible, she plays Claire, who waited by the window every day. She is luckier, though. Because her Henry always tells her ‘goodbye’ before he leaves, and she always knows that he’ll be coming back.  
  
Her feelings, though, are all over the place. She still loves him, and she still waits every night before she sleeps so she can welcome him home. But lately, she notices his sad smile and the soft murmur of apology he says when the lights are out and she’s pretending to be asleep. She wants to turn around, caress his cheek, and tell him that she understands.

Even if she doesn’t.

So she just remains silent and let things run their course.  
  
 __

 _Tsuna –_  
  
Watching her pains him. He asked Kyoko to talk to her, to tell her that this isn’t right. He, himself, tried talking to Gokudera before, constantly trying to make him see the wrongness of the situation. Gokudera, however, would just profusely apologize offering no clear explanation, and Tsuna, flustered by the amount of ‘sorrys’ and bowing, would let him go, after a couple of apologies, himself. It has been quite a while since he last tried again.  
  
The worries worsened as time passed.  
  
Haru got pregnant. He felt that this was getting ridiculous. Kyoko had long given up, saying that Tsuna didn’t understand, but what else was there for him to find out? Haru was with a child, and her husband was gone ---  _lost_.  
  
“Haru,” Tsuna says. It’s during one of his visits to their household, and she’s alone. He touches her hand, and removes it from the book. “Tell him to stop.”  
  
Haru cocks her head to the side and smiles. “It’s okay, Tsuna-san,” she replies. “He always comes back.”  
  
“But it’s different! This isn’t a novel, this is---“ Tsuna’s face falls, and he sits back down, his eyes downcast. The words spill out of him, hot and painful. “He isn’t _here_.”  
  
Haru understands the weight of his words, and says nothing. She just looks out the window, and Tsuna notices that her grip on the book has tightened.  
  
“He always comes back,” she repeats. “That’s all I need.”  
  
  
 _Haru –_  
  
And she believes her words.  
  
  
 _Gokudera –_

  
He feels a sense of calm washing over him, when he opens his eyes to his old room in Japan, rather than his closet in Italy. He breathes in nostalgia like oxygen, and he wastes no time in going out into the night. Hands in pocket, his feet move automatically.  
  
He stops in front of a shop.  
  
He adjusts his hat and his sunglasses, and goes in. Immediately, he is greeted by familiarity: the smell, the sounds, the colors. He drinks everything in, as he walks to his seat.  
  
“The usual,” he tells the old man behind the counter, who replies, “Tuesdays it is!”, followed by “Takeshi, tutor’s here!”  
  
Gokudera then hears a shuffling of feet down a wooden set of stairs, concluded by a semi-winded boy at its feet. There’s a glow on his cheeks and a smile on his face as he greets him happily.  
  
Gokudera sneers a little at his childishness but pats the empty seat next to him. “Come on, we gotta work on your Math. Exams are coming soon.”  
  
The boy obediently places his textbooks and workbooks on the table. He pauses to stare a little, like always, and then he chuckles. “I still can’t believe it.” He takes the offered seat, and opens his book. “I could imagine Gokudera looking just like you after a few years. Hey, when we get older, maybe I could get Gokudera tutor my son, too. He’s good at these things.”  
  
“What makes you think he’s gonna stick around?” the Storm guardian comments dryly, chuckling.  
  
“He doesn’t have to,” he replies. “I can do that, instead.”  
  
Gokudera hits him lightly on the head. His hand remains there, and he ruffles the younger boy’s hair. He feels real. Gokudera wants to hit him until he’s half-dead, hit him because the bastard would break his goddamned promise. He wants to tell him to take back his words, because after all these years, it’s the exact same words that make it impossible for him to let go.  
  
But more than that, he wants the moment to stay. He knows, however, that it can’t, and he goes back to the workbook.  
  
“You got number 6 wrong.”  
  
  
 _Gokudera –_  
  
For the first time, he walks out of the closet. He’s been turning up in the future for quite some time now, always in the same cabinet. Always with a message tacked on the wall:  _Do not go out_ , in his alphabet.  
  
With the note in his pocket, he steps out, and finds himself in a bedroom. Italian, maroon walls, modest chandelier, a king-sized oak-framed bed under a tasteful,translucent canopy.

 _‘Not bad,’_ he muses, his gaze stopping on a window. Then he sees a woman. He rubs the back of his neck, suddenly embarrassed, and he accidentally elbows a vase. He catches it just in time.  
  
The woman turns around, and her eyes widen at the sight of him. He realizes for the first time that she’s pregnant.  
  
“G-Gokudera… kun?”  
  
Gokudera narrows his eyes, trying to find out who she is. Her face is familiar, but he can’t quite put a name on it.  
  
She smiles at him, and tells him to come closer. He follows.  
  
“He’s kicking,” she whispers, and she takes Gokudera’s hand and places it on her stomach. At the sensation of the kick, he jerks back, but he finds himself calming down when she rubs her thumb on the back of his hand. “You felt it.”  
  
He nods. He removes his hand, and stands next to her. Awkwardly. He can feel their distance, like they’re both not there.  
  
Finally, he asks: “Why do I always go back? It’s not that I mind, but I don’t think it’s responsible for the Tenth’s right-hand man to be constantly away from him.” His next words are pained and a little softer. “Unless--- unless the Tenth chose someone else?”  
  


“Oh, no! You’re a wonderful right-hand man.”  
  
He brightens up for a second, but then something dawns on him. His voice is suddenly ragged, heavy with emotion.

 

“So why?”  
  
  
 _Haru –_  
  
Haru struggles for a while.  
  
Then she calms down.  
  
“He’s teaching Yamamoto some Math.”  
  
He sighs in relief and says something about ‘the idiot not able to pass high school without his help’. “No skin off my teeth,” he says. “I don’t want to teach that baseball idiot, anyway.”  
  
A little while later, he says he’s going to go back to his cabinet, and Haru nods. “I won’t tell,” she assures him. “I promise.”  
  
He gives her a sad smile and, for a split-second, Haru sees  _her_  Gokudera in him.  
  
She waits until he turns around before she chokes back a sob. She puts the book away. She knows that she can never be Claire, because Gokudera’s no Henry, because time has stopped for Gokudera: he decided to stay. The weight of the realization is heavy, and so is the responsibility. But, marrying Gokudera, she had made her promise.  
  
Minutes later, she composes herself and dries her eyes.  
  
Gokudera’s coming home any moment now.  
  
And she’ll be there to welcome him back.  
  
  
  
 **FIN.**


End file.
